He kissed her. She couldn't blame it on heat of the moment or flaring tempers, which was surprising given how much of her time with him so far had been emotionally charged. But this moment was still and unhurried, one of the few islands of calm in the chaos of their past few days. She stared at him disbelieving for a few moments, feeling a smile tugging at her lips and hope blooming in her chest at the thought that, even separated from Regina, he liked her. She reveled in the feeling for a moment before a cold fear seized her stomach. Was he crossing realms and leaving everything for her?! She had a heart filled with darkness and she was heading back to a realm filled with memories of pain and heartbreak. She had no idea what her future held, and the thought of another person following her into that unknown void was terrifying. She dropped her eyes from his as she brought her hands away from waist to cross her arms in front of her.

"We should start planning how we're going to get there, I guess." She stepped away from him and moved to warm herself closer to the fire, staring into its depths.

Robin's head spun. She had responded to his kiss, and she had even seemed happy for a moment afterwards as she looked up at him. And then those damn walls slammed down again. He could see it in her eyes before she had stepped away from him, the honey-flecked brown suddenly losing all warmth and filling with fear. What was she afraid of? He shook his head and moved to join her by the fire, stashing this away to think about later.

"Yes, about that," he said. "I'm serious. Rumplestiltskin isn't going to help us."

"Rumple and I have had our disagreements, but I can usually get what I need from him by striking some kind of deal. What was he so angry about this time?"

"Something about a woman he found locked in a tower. Well not a woman, I guess, it was just a pile of bones," Robin replied.

She looked up at him from the fire but kept her hands warming over it. "Shit. Belle. I totally forgot. She would have died of thirst or starvation when I- when the Queen- was banished. Shit. You're right he's not going to help me," she said turning to look at the fire once again. "The bean was our best bet in my mind because I can usually handle Rumple. But the other option is Jefferson. The Hatter. He's unpredictable, but if he agrees to help us then we can get to the Enchanted Forest," she said.

"The Hatter?" Robin said skeptically.

"He has a hat that can act as a portal. I don't know if he's even still alive in this world, but it's worth a shot. Certainly a better bet than Rumple given what happened," she said. "We'll head to the house he used to live in first thing in the morning. There's not much point going tonight, and frankly I'm a bit tired from bouncing us all over the kingdom all day. I could use another night's sleep before embarking on this."

"Perfectly alright with me," Robin replied. He took a few more pieces of meat off the fire and offered her one. She took it graciously and they made their way back over to the rocks to continue eating.

By the time they finished their meals dusk was starting to fall. Regina stood up and conjured the tent, beds, and sleeping clothes from the night before, and they took turns changing in the tent and washing up at a stream nearby. After they had climbed into their separate cots they lay silent for a moment, each staring up at the ceiling.

"Can I ask you something," Regina said hesitantly.

"Ask away," Robin said flippantly, showing less fear than he was feeling at the moment. She was going to confront him about the kiss he just knew it…

"Why are you coming with me?" she asked, rolling on her side to face him and propping herself up on one of her arms. "I mean, you're welcome to stick around, but I can't promise that the land I'm headed into holds safety or a fresh start for either of us. In fact, I can almost guarantee that it holds neither."

Robin settled himself on his side as well, facing her. "I guess I'm not expecting either of those things at the moment. I'm well aware that this new land might be war-torn or filled with ogres, and I assumed that the people there knew Robin as well as Regina."

"So then why come? You hated being around people who had known the old Robin when we were back in Storybrooke," she reminded him gently.

"Fair point," he said. "Honestly, I don't know. Back in Storybrooke there was just this way that people looked at me. Filled with disappointment and sadness. When she looked at me I just knew that she was seeing all the ways I wasn't like him."

"So then why would the people in the Enchanted Forest look at you any differently?" she asked.

"They might not. But the last few days I've found myself thinking about all the ways that I could be like him. I don't feel suffocated by it the way I did back in Storybrooke. Instead, for the first time in a long while, I feel like I could do and be better. Obviously I still can't live up to what he was, but I at least feel like I want to try."

"I guess that's good. But still, why come to the Enchanted Forest to do that? You could just do that here."

"Do you not want me to come?" he asked, suddenly realizing that she might be trying to get rid of him.

"No! It's not that," she said defensively. He gave her a sidelong glance that told her he could see through it. "I mean it's not that I don't want you there. It's just…what if after 3 days in that place I turn back into a monster? Then you're stuck in a strange realm with no friends and a crazed, evil, powerful sorceress."

"Well, this realm that we're in currently isn't strange, but it's definitely not a friendly place for me to be at the moment, given the wanted posters. And I don't really have any friends. So in your scenario I'm in exactly the same spot I'm in now, but without the army hunting for me, and with either an evil sorceress or a friend, depending on how you do. I guess my question would be what the odds are on you turning into an evil sorceress."

"50/50?" she said.

"Oh come on. You've barely thought about killing anyone other than me in the last few days," he said smiling. "That has to count for something."

She smiled as well. "Fine. I guess if I put some serious effort into it I could maybe swing it to 60/40 on me staying non-evil."

"Excellent. So you work on not turning into the evil variety of sorceress, and I'll work on being more like him, and we'll watch each other's backs and see how that works for a little bit," he said.

"Deal," she said, and rolled away from him onto her other side, preparing to go to sleep. Robin rolled onto his back and looked up at the tent ceiling. Regina closed her eyes, then opened them and spoke quietly over her shoulder to him. "Don't change too much. I like some of the ways that you aren't like him," she admitted.

Robin smiled and looked over at her form, still turned away from him. "If I'm being honest I don't mind if a little bit of the evil sticks around. I quite enjoy it sometimes."

They both fell silent after that and drifted off to sleep.

On Day 3 Regina awoke to the sounds of soft breathing once again. She opened her eyes to see Robin's sleeping form on the cot across the tent from her and thought about how nice it was waking up with another person nearby. She and Leopold had never slept in the same bedroom (she had merely gone to his room whenever requested) and as Queen she had enjoyed herself with men, but had always kicked them out as soon as they were done. The casual intimacy that was developing as she and Robin spent more time together was something new, and she found that she was enjoying it.

She sat up and stretched, getting ready to get moving for the day, and the rustling sounds woke Robin.

"Time to get up?" he asked sleepily.

"Yeah I think we should probably get moving," she said, absentmindedly noting how handsome he looked with his hair tousled with sleep.

They got up, quickly making a fire and sharing some food leftover from the night before as well as a few apples that Regina had conjured. After Robin had changed into his clothes from the day before Regina ducked into the tent to change, conjuring one of her evil-queen era dresses. In roping in Jefferson she knew she had two tools: intimidation and cleavage. She chose one of her more aggressive corsets and paired it with tight pants and a long black dress with velvet patterning on it. She twisted her hair up into an elaborate updo and added some dramatic jewelry and makeup to increase the intimidation factor.

As she emerged from the tent Robin turned to look back at her from where he was poking at the fire with a stick. He tried not to but quickly ran his eyes over her body, his jaw dropping open. He met her eyes and she smirked back at him, holding his gaze for what felt like hours. The smoldering gaze was only halted by the fire that had slowly made it way up the stick in Robin's hand, and he tore his gaze away from hers, cursing as he dropped the stick on the ground and shook his hand.

"Go put your hand in the cold water of the stream. I'll take care of the tent and the fire," she said, waving her hand and putting out the fire as she spoke.

10 minutes later they were ready to go, Robin now sporting a new bandage on his burned hand. Regina wanted to walk for a bit to wake up a little more before she had to take on Jefferson and his games, and so the two strolled up the road in comfortable silence.

"So," Robin said clearing his throat nervously. "I feel like this burn on my hand is the Gods punishing me for ogling you. And perhaps pressing my advantage last night."

Regina was stunned. No one had ever apologized to her in her life for thinking that her body was theirs to peruse visually or even, in some cases, physically. "Robin I appreciate that but you have nothing to apologize for," she said.

"I just hope I haven't been making you uncomfortable," he continued. "And I hope that last night I wasn't being presumptuous or inappropriate when I… you know… when I kissed you."

"You haven't made me uncomfortable at any time," she said, hoping he wouldn't want to talk about the kiss right now. Her feelings were all jumbled up and she felt like pulling at any particular one might cause the entire mess to collapse, and her along with it.

"Do you think we should talk about it?" Robin pressed.

She groaned inwardly. "I don't think either of us is in any headspace to be having big talks about those sorts of things right now. Can we call it 'a bit of spontaneous fun' and leave it at that for now?" she said.

Robin was a bit crestfallen, having seen the kiss as a bit more than "spontaneous fun", but didn't want to pressure her in any way. "Sure," he said.

She was silent for a few moments and then decided she should let Robin in on a bit more of the plan. "Honestly I chose this corset and dress this morning hoping to get just such a reaction from Jefferson, so I was glad to see it had the intended effect," she said.

"You wore that for the hat guy?" Robin said, trying to push down the stirrings of jealousy.

"With Jefferson my best bet is to use power and sex to get him to help us."

He stopped walking, and realizing that he was no longer walking beside her she stopped as well and turned to look back at him.

"Regina I won't let you use your body to get us a trip to another world," he said forcefully.

"In this case I meant 'sex' in the more general sense of the word, because unless he magically stopped aging like you did the man is in his 70s at this point."

"Are you saying that if he had magically stopped aging you would consider trading sex for a trip in a hat?" Robin said, looking at her incredulously.

"I don't know. Maybe. Probably not," she said.

"Did you used to?" Robin asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

She sighed, wondering if she should tell him, but decided it was stupid to lie to him at this point. "When I was younger, when I was first married, we were involved. He would come to the castle and we'd travel to other realms and then have sex, or sometimes travel and then come back to the castle and have sex. He was an escape for me in more ways than one, so I wouldn't say I was trading sex for hat trips. There was more to it than that. Not a lot more, because my heart was already closing itself off to most of the happier human emotions, even at that point. But it was something."

"Regina, all these men who ogle you and use you like they have the right to. Doesn't it make you feel violated?"

It was Regina's turn to look at him incredulously now. "For fucks sake, Robin. I was married against my will to a 65-year-old man that I barely knew when I was 20 years old. That was after my mother killed first love and best friend in front of me. If you think the worst violation I've experienced is strangers ogling me or men who trade services for sex let me enlighten you: it's not." She turned and started walking again. "And if you think I haven't violated my share of people, in every sense of the word, you're also quite mistaken."

Robin was overcome with a wave of sadness for this woman. No wonder the light that shone from her was so often hidden by that protective wall she put up. He was amazed it hadn't been extinguished entirely given what she had gone through. He turned and quickly caught up with her on the road, catching her arm, stopping her, and turning her to face him.

"Regina I understand that after such heinous acts it's easy for you to excuse lesser things imposed on you. But you shouldn't. I'll stop acting like some knight in shining armor trying to save your virtue, because I think we both know that's ridiculous on a number of levels. But I will not stop trying to convince you that you deserve to be treated with respect by the people around you."

Regina looked up at him, awestruck. "Robin if you knew what I had done to the people around me—"

He cut her off. "You weren't born evil, you were shaped into what you were by the things that happened to you. It's not an excuse, but it is true. And you came back from it by opening yourself up to love, not just from the people around you, but from yourself. If we're going to keep the odds of keeping evil at bay at 60-40 then you have to keep yourself open to real love, and to do that you have to acknowledge your right to it. You are smart and capable and resilient as hell, and whatever the things you have done in the past you won't convince me that you don't deserve my respect. "

He looked at her intently for a few more seconds and then turned and resumed walking up the road. Regina took some steadying breaths to get her emotions under control, then turned to catch up with him. They walked in silence for a while longer until they reached a crossroads.

"I guess we should head to Jefferson's," Regina said.

"I'm excited to meet this man who was able to catch your eye back in the day," he said smiling.

"He's certainly something," she responded. "And Robin," she said as she turned towards him, meeting his eyes and taking his hand in hers, "thank you. For what you said. I appreciate it."

"I meant it," he said, bringing his other hand up to cover hers. "And I'm sorry things got so heavy back there. Are you up for a hat negotiation right now? How do you feel?"

She gave him a playful smile and said, "I'm feeling pretty 70-30 at the moment," as she waived her hand and they disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke.